Hi-
In earlier discussion Faith asked for examples of benefical mutations, and at last count I think we had come up with a baker's dozen. Some, Faith didn't like, like the sickle-cell one, but others were agreed to be beneficial, like the buttocks mutation, etc.
I happened upon another one today, a case were some algae evolved in aquariums to be better than their wild ancestors. So much better, in fact, that they are taking over the Meditteranian, and here in the U S we are hopeing no one accidentally releases some here.
Here is the article:
shortened link
here is a snippet from it:
quote:
The alga is a mutant, aquarium-derived clone of the Mediterranean's Caulerpa taxifolia. Although the species is native to Florida and Caribbean waters, the lagoon's variant only vaguely resembles its wild brethren. Native C.taxifolia behaves like shy, runty pantywaists. Its aquarium-derived kin acts like a towering conquistador bullying coastal ecosystems. This rogue Caulerpa is undeterred by low light or chilly temperatures that normally kill the species.
Being a conquistador instead of a pantywaist does seem benefical to me. On a side note, this species is a nice demonstration of a transitional form between single-celled algae and more complex plants. As we've seen, there are many easy ways single celled organism can evolve into multi-celled organisms.
All the best-
Equinox
Edited by AdminJar, : shorten long link, use peek to see how it was done.
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